Technology Lab —

Hands-on: OpenMoko WikiReader is simple, appealing

Ars takes a hands-on look at OpenMoko's WikiReader, a handheld device that …

OpenMoko's WikiReader is a unique gadget with a single function. The simple handheld device stores the text of over 3 million Wikipedia entries, enabling convenient offline access to the popular Internet encyclopedia. We have conducted some hands-on testing with the new product and found it to be surprisingly compelling despite its limitations.

OpenMoko, a FIC spin-off that was originally founded with the ambitious goal of building a completely open source smartphone handset, began developing the WikiReader this year after significant financial and technical challenges forced the company to discontinue phone development. The WikiReader was announced to the public last month and is available for purchase for $99 from the company's website.

The WikiReader weighs in at 4.5oz and is roughly 4x4 inches. The small device fits easily in a pocket and can be used comfortably with one hand. Its 3.5 inch monochrome touchscreen display operates at a resolution of 240x208. Three physical buttons below the touchscreen provide quick access to the device's primary features. The power button is on the top right edge of the device's shell. The Wikireader is powered by two AAA batteries which are said to last for roughly 12 months of regular use.

When the WikiReader is turned on, it will briefly show a logo and then provide users with immediate access to its on-screen keyboard. The entire startup process takes less than two seconds. Delivering immediate access to content is one of the WikiReader's strengths and a key advantage of using a dedicated device for Wikipedia.

The touchscreen keyboard allows the user to type in the name of the entry that they wish to read. As the user types, the WikiReader will display a list of entries with titles that match the characters that have been inputted so far. For example, when I type "ars t" the device will list Ars Technica and Ars Theurgia Goetia as matching entries. The user can tap one of the entries on the touchscreen to read it. The keyboard can be invoked at any time by pressing the "search" button on the device. It's worth noting, however, that the search feature is not like the one on the Wikipedia website—it won't let you search for a term in the text content of entries.

The WikiReader lists possible entries based on the text you enter

The entry content is displayed with simple formatting and no images. The title and heading text is displayed with larger font. Italics and bulleted lists are supported, but bold is not. Links to other entries are underlined and can be tapped to load the associated entry. Although the WikiReader generally handles text formatting well, I noticed a few bugs in various entries. Bulleted lists that have complex nested hierarchies appear to be particularly problematic. An example of this can be seen with the taxonomical classification list on the entry about monkeys. The text that follows this list has distorted alignment.

The WikiReader's screen can fit roughly one paragraph of text at a time. Users can scroll through the text by dragging a finger vertically across the touchscreen. While the user is dragging, a small scrollbar indicator will appear on the right-hand side to indicate the length of the entry and the user's position in it. The touchscreen is capacitive and will only respond to actual finger contact, not a stylus or fingernail. Regular scrolling works well for reading, but the device doesn't provide an easy way to jump up and down in an entry. Support for kinetic scrolling would be a welcome enhancement for faster movement within an individual entry.

The WikiReader's navigation model is simple but effective. In addition to the "search" button, which is used to invoke the keyboard, the device has a "history" button that will display a list of recently viewed entries and a "random" button that will show a randomly selected entry. When an entry is selected from the history list, it will start at exactly the same scroll position where it was when the user left it. This is useful because it makes it easy to switch quickly between multiple entries, much as you would with tabbed browsing on the desktop. Entries load very quickly, so there is virtually no lag. In general, the entire device is highly responsive.

The on-screen keyboard is mediocre, but it's tolerable because very little text input is required. The keys are small and positioned very close to each other, creating the probability that you will hit the wrong key. I ended up using the backspace key a lot. The keys are arranged in a standard QWERTY configuration with one in the bottom right corner allowing you to toggle between the letter keys and numbers and symbols.

When you select an entry from the list of search results, your query will be retained and will still be there when you click the search button again. This is useful because it makes it easy to go back and select a different entry if you chose the wrong one from the search results list. It's frustrating in some cases, like when you want to search for something different, because you will have to use backspace to delete the current query. It would be nice if the device had a button on the search screen for clearing the current query.

In order to conserve energy and extend its battery life, the WikiReader will automatically turn itself off when it is left idle. It never turned itself off while I was actually reading, so the idle timer is set to a reasonable duration. When you turn it back on, you can use the history button to get back to where you were last time you used it.

The WikiReader's screen readability is acceptable, but not ideal. Limited contrast and glare from the reflective display make it difficult to read the text at some angles and with certain lighting conditions. The text is crisp and clear when you have the device angled so that an ambient light source is hitting it directly. In rooms with ceiling lights, this means holding it almost flat. At other angles, it was somewhat difficult to see the text.

The readability issues are not a dealbreaker, but will be annoying to those of us who are accustomed to the clarity of color LCDs. The screen on the WikiReader is comparable to classic monocrhome displays like that of the original Gameboy or Palm Pilot.

The WikiReader's software platform is open source and available for download from GitHub. It uses a modified version of GCC that has been customized to cross-compile code for the device's Epson S1C33E07 microcontroller. The software is loaded directly from the micro-SD card that also stores the Wikipedia content. The card slot is located in the battery compartment. If you put your own cross-compiled binary on a micro-SD card and name it KERNEL.ELF, the device will automatically attempt to load it on startup. This means that you can write a custom software environment for the WikiReader without having to overwrite the flash memory.

The software platform also comes with a FORTH interpreter that can run several small programs that are stored on the SD card. To access these programs, you hold the "random" button down while you turn on the device. It will display a menu of the FORTH programs and allow you to run one of them by tapping it on the touchscreen. The apps that are shipped on the SD card include a simple drawing program and a calculator. There are also a few diagnostic utilities for performing various kinds of tests.

The WikiReader is an intriguing product with an intuitive interface. People who already have a smartphone are obviously not the target market, but the device offers a lot of value for users who do not have constant connectivity. I think that $99 is a bit steep for what you get, especially when you look at the PMP market where you can increasingly find more functional multipurpose devices at a comparable price. The WikiReader has an advantage over those in battery life, however. If the cost doesn't put you off, I think it's a pretty compelling device that is enjoyable to use.

55 Reader Comments

If that display didn't look so terrible, and the onscreen keyboard was better, this would be pretty cool I think. Also cut the price by like $20.

As it stands it seems like you'd be better off going with some other portable device, and downloading an application that contains Wikipedia (I'd be surprised if they don't exist). Or a netbook is only 2-3x the cost, and could easily store all of Wikipedia, in addition to doing much more.

Having Wikipedia offline, on a mobile device is surprisingly non-straightforward, involving proprietary software and whatnot. But the real advantage of the Wikireader is having a dedicated device and a dedicated battery. The screen seems pretty awful, but that's part of what buys you the battery runtime.

That said, I think the UI could use some work. Having dedicated buttons for index, history and random is more elegant than having page up/down buttons, but I can't help but feel that the latter would be more useful -- particularly page down. You could have the random button do that, while retaining its functionality when holding the button. Similarly, you could double the history button by making it a back button on press and a history button on hold. Another UI idea: press search once to go back to the index in the exact state you left it, press search again at that point to blank the search term and start from scratch. Or this: press and hold a link on the touchscreen to add the linked article to a list of articles you want to read later (e.g. add them to the history list in italics); this would serve a similar function of opening a link in a background tab in a browser, something I do all the time on Wikipedia.

Maybe the device already does some of those things. If not, I guess it's possible to retrofit it since it's open!

Other requests spring to mind: You should be able to update it yourself, ie. download a Wikipedia text dump and generate an up-to-date image, although this is a process which only few people will want to sit through due to the amount of data involved. And maybe the tools are already available. This would also mean people could do this for their own language Wikipedia, or possibly even other Mediawiki sites.

Images would be great, but obviously that ain't gonna happen because the image dump is not available and would be ludicrously large. Not to mention that the device isn't up to it, probably. But maybe, maybe someone will figure out a way to extract the images from the top 2% (by some adequate measure), dither them out as b/w and display them in some manner on the device. A picture often says more than a thousand words is true on Wikipedia, as well, and it's a major shortcoming relative to smartphones and their ilk that they aren't available on the Wikireader.

I'm still on the fence about buying one. It's almost an impulse buy, particularly with EUR/USD being as it is, but I'd be much more comfortable if I could see it in person first to be able to judge the interface including the screen. Returning it (if possible at all) isn't a very good option if it's got to cross the pond. So thanks for the review...

"mail subscription. Updates come on a new memory card and cost $29 for two updates per year, plus taxes and shipping."

or you can feely download the 4GB+ file (how fast they make the download is an open question) I can find no such link but perhaps it is walled off and only given to purchasers. I would imagine that, if it was sufficiently popular and under an open redist licence a 'blessed' torrent would come about

Originally posted by dburr:It's a shame about the lack of image support as most of wikipedia articles that I read are of a mathematical nature and tend to use images to render formulae instead of MathML.

The images in most math articles are actually generated from a markup languge (Latex I guess?), so in theory it'd be possible to render them in some way on the Wikireader; even simply dumping the markup as plain text would be better than dropping all the formulas.

Originally posted by sonicdeath:If that display didn't look so terrible, and the onscreen keyboard was better, this would be pretty cool I think. .

Thanks for the feedback. Let me try to elaborate a bit more on our hardware. We chose this type of screen for two reasons. First it's super super low power. We wanted this to be a device that you could put into your bag or purse and forget about until you're inspired and want to look something up. We thought that if at that time WikiReader was out of batteries, you probably wouldn't try it again. (Don't we already have enough devices in our lives that require daily charging?)

Second, and really equally as important, it's reflective. So when you're outside in the sunlight, it looks amazing. We wanted WikiReader to be something you could take with you anywhere, like a good book.

Hope that helps. And I do hope you give it a try. I'm confident you'll love it.

Originally posted by moritz-s:It's a shame about the lack of image support as most of wikipedia articles that I read are of a mathematical nature and tend to use images to render formulae instead of MathML.

That's on our roadmap - a super high priority item. Along with support for more languages besides just English. Feel free to email support [AT] thewikireader.com with your feature requests and comments. We reply very fast and love to hear from you.

Originally posted by moritz-s:I'm still on the fence about buying one. It's almost an impulse buy, particularly with EUR/USD being as it is, but I'd be much more comfortable if I could see it in person first to be able to judge the interface including the screen. Returning it (if possible at all) isn't a very good option if it's got to cross the pond...

If you're not happy you can return it. We're super relaxed about that since we truly believe you'll love WikiReader. Trust me, it's a different type of experience than what most people probably imagine. I know being disconnected is a strange "feature" in this day and age. But I think there’s a benefit to going offline and having people focus and spend more time, have more space to think. We’ve lost that with so many of today’s experiences. WikiReader is very fun. Random will suck you in Wikipedia's rich array of information for hours!

Originally posted by sonicdeath:If that display didn't look so terrible, and the onscreen keyboard was better, this would be pretty cool I think. .

Thanks for the feedback. Let me try to elaborate a bit more on our hardware. We chose this type of screen for two reasons. First it's super super low power. We wanted this to be a device that you could put into your bag or purse and forget about until you're inspired and want to look something up. We thought that if at that time WikiReader was out of batteries, you probably wouldn't try it again. (Don't we already have enough devices in our lives that require daily charging?)

Second, and really equally as important, it's reflective. So when you're outside in the sunlight, it looks amazing. We wanted WikiReader to be something you could take with you anywhere, like a good book.

Hope that helps. And I do hope you give it a try. I'm confident you'll love it.

Did you consider using an e-ink display like the Kindle? I'd think that would be a lot more power friendly, and have the contrast you needed. (Besides, it'd be really cool to see one in a real useful project.)

That looks like a great device. I almost dismissed it when it was announced, but the review on Ars is quite helpful to see the potential of the device.

They could easily solve the need to clear the search text entry without changing the hardware, just updating the software so a long press on the search button clears the text entered. You can actually do a lot with only their 3 buttons if you change the button effect depending on context.

That probably isn't high on their list, but they should also partner with ebook reader makers. Having that functionality come preinstalled and ready to used with an intuitive interface on an eink ebook reader would greatly boost the appeal of said ebook reader model(s), while the ebook reader maker could contribute to Wikipedia and the program writers (if they're separate from the Wikipedia project, which I'm not sure).

I'm not Ryan, but kinetic scrolling is a feature in many modern touch (and some non-touch) based interfaces where you can flick a page up and down, and depending on how fast you flick it, is continues scrolling for a while as if it was a physical item with momentum.

I'm not Ryan, but kinetic scrolling is a feature in many modern touch (and some non-touch) based interfaces where you can flick a page up and down, and depending on how fast you flick it, is continues scrolling for a while as if it was a physical item with momentum.

I've got one just about a week ago and I'm a bit disappointed...There are no indexes! So take your wikiReader and check the Article about Hydrogen for example. You'll scroll for a year to get all the way down. And that's the second point: Scrolling. There is no momentum so you won't get anywhere fast. There is an experimental KERNEL.ELF (bit.ly/YNxs8) which fixes that at least partially. And yes, the formatting is not very good. Some stuff it won't display and that you don't have fat font is also bad.These are all things which an be fixed through software updates, so I hope to see these three things addressed in an update soon.

Its nice to hear how hackable the thing is. A touchscreen pocket forth interpreter is pretty cool. I really want to like it, but I'd have a hard time not buying an iPod Touch and downloading a Wikipedia app instead. At least one such app exists, probably more.

I guess the competition is battery life, cost and hackability vs flexibility and screen quality.

Of course I'm doing fine with neither, so there's always that option too. Less plastic, more karma. Where do I drop off my geek cred on the way out?

Three months ago I was talking with my dad while we were driving to see family, and we came up with lots of random questions. A business on the side of the road that claimed to do something we had no idea what it was. The capital city of Oregon. I said if any of us had a smart phone, we could hit the internet and find the answer. He said that needs a network connection. When he goes fishing in northern Alberta, there isn't a cell connection for many miles, and he and his friends have all sorts of random questions up there. They generally determine who's right as who is the most confident about their answer. So, we got to talking and decided most of these questions were answered on Wikipedia, but I thought it was too big to ever take off-line. Two months later, I hear about this device on Ars. My dad doesn't know TheWikiReader exists, so it'll be a good xmas present. Doesn't mean I can't play with it for a couple weeks before handing it off.

Originally posted by dburr:It's a shame about the lack of image support as most of wikipedia articles that I read are of a mathematical nature and tend to use images to render formulae instead of MathML.

Actually wikipedia uses latex to represent formulas in the wiki text. They are rendered to images for viewing on the web. As an intermediate step WikiReader could just include the raw latex in the article text as you read.

I find it ironic that PDA's died with the surge of smart phones coming out, but now some companies feel the need to explore really niche gadgets like this?

I'm not exactly sure what you would be doing where you absolutely MUST have wikipedia on-demand offline to require this that couldn't just wait until you were back in reach of web with your smartphone or netbook. Plus, wikipedia has debateable validity at times.

This is like those esoteric kitchen gadgets, like apple-corers, which folks get on a whim since it seemed cool/useful at the time, but gets stuffed in a drawer never to see the light of day again. Then you stumble across it later and wonder why you popped so much money for something you never use.

Maybe I'm playing Devil's Advocate here, but this really seems like a company grasping at straws for stuff to sell here. And I'm sort of ashamed to see Ars reviewing it. This is the kind of stuff that belongs in airline magazines that sell fancy, over-priced gadget crap nobody ever uses.

Before reading the review and/or the comments, it must be said: Having married an American of Mexican descent who has a degree in Spanish, I cannot help but hear this as Open Moco (sp?)--that is, Open Booger.

You're ashamed to see this reviewed? What an ass. Apparently it's not for you, hardly surprising since you don't seem to think too much of Wikipedia, but it seems obvious that there are a lot of people who are interested in this device. An MP3 player isn't something I absolutely MUST have, either, it's still a luxury many people including myself seem to pay money for -- and more than USD 100.

I'm trying to think of when I would use something like this. I don't see myself carrying it around just in case a random question comes up. It's one of those things where if I could have the functionality on a device I already carry, I absolutely would, but I'm not going to carry yet another device just for that.

If I made more money, it could be cool as a coffee table device. But in that case the offline nature is a disadvantage, as are the limitations in rendering. An eBook reader would serve the purpose better, and have other uses.

It could be cool in the car for long road trips - especially if it included a trivia application that then linked to articles if you wanted to read more.

Apart from that why else would I carry this except to cheat on a pub quiz? (and get thoroughly beaten for doing so

Originally posted by Tundro Walker:I find it ironic that PDA's died with the surge of smart phones coming out, but now some companies feel the need to explore really niche gadgets like this?

I'm not exactly sure what you would be doing where you absolutely MUST have wikipedia on-demand offline to require this that couldn't just wait until you were back in reach of web with your smartphone or netbook. Plus, wikipedia has debateable validity at times.

This is like those esoteric kitchen gadgets, like apple-corers, which folks get on a whim since it seemed cool/useful at the time, but gets stuffed in a drawer never to see the light of day again. Then you stumble across it later and wonder why you popped so much money for something you never use.

Maybe I'm playing Devil's Advocate here, but this really seems like a company grasping at straws for stuff to sell here. And I'm sort of ashamed to see Ars reviewing it. This is the kind of stuff that belongs in airline magazines that sell fancy, over-priced gadget crap nobody ever uses.

I couldn't disagree more. A small, light, non-networked, long battery duration encyclopedia is a fantastic utility. The fact that one set of batteries can last you almost a year, alone, is incredibly intriguing. Back in the day, folks bought encyclopedias for their families, in order to have a local repository of general information. Now, you can do the same, and have it in pocket form...a true pocket encyclopedia. "Why couldn't they just wait until they got to the library? All the same knowledge is there." It's a matter of convenience.

Some people don't have the luxury of always on internet, or don't want to buy a smartphone, or don't want to whip out their laptop and find a hot spot just to look something up. Some places plain don't have internet service at all. The price, too, is quite reasonable for what you're getting.

The sum of Human-wiki knowledge, in the palm of your hand, wherever you want...for less than a hundred bucks. Douglas Adams would be proud.

Hmm, I might actually ask for this as a present. It seems like a gadget which follows unix app philosophy, less is more or however that goes. I do a lot of my article reading outside on the porch, and having this might be pretty handy there.

100 bucks is a bit steep though (get it down to ~75 and I'd buy a few for other people). That said, I'm excited to see where this will go in the future.

Tundro Walker obviously assumes that everyone in the world has a smartphone or netbook.

I have a cell phone to make calls or the occasional text, nothing else. I have absolutely no use for a netbook. But TW seems to think I should buy one of these over priced toys, for several hundred dollars (plus access time), to use Wikipedia online instead of spending $99 for an pocket version.

I've had a number of smartphones and I've always had an offline Wikipedia reader for them. Originally this was because data plans were slow and expensive (2005 Canada: $25/month for 5 MB of data transfer).

But even though I now have unlimited data transfer and 3G speeds, having an offline copy is better. The latency is minimal (don't need to launch browser, go to Wikipedia, enter search term). The content, though lacking in images and not always up to date, is "good enough". And it's always available, whether I'm in a train or airplane or in a poor signal area. It's incredibly useful to be able to, at any time, look up - well, anything. Then again I'm the kind of person who likes Jeopardy! and general trivia, easily gets bored, and is much more entertained by reading a random Wikipedia article than listening to music.

If I didn't already have a smartphone, I'd purchase something like this ...

I could definitely see this as a great Christmas present for my non-technology inclined father. He has no computer and no encyclopedia, so something like this could be awesome for him. I could update it for him once a year or so.

But TW seems to think I should buy one of these over priced toys, for several hundred dollars (plus access time), to use Wikipedia online instead of spending $99 for an pocket version.

Or, novel concept, bare with me hear ... you could *wait* to get home or to the library to use wikipedia then.

quote:

I've had a number of smartphones and I've always had an offline Wikipedia reader for them. Originally this was because data plans were slow and expensive (2005 Canada: $25/month for 5 MB of data transfer).

But even though I now have unlimited data transfer and 3G speeds, having an offline copy is better. The latency is minimal (don't need to launch browser, go to Wikipedia, enter search term). The content, though lacking in images and not always up to date, is "good enough". And it's always available, whether I'm in a train or airplane or in a poor signal area. It's incredibly useful to be able to, at any time, look up - well, anything. Then again I'm the kind of person who likes Jeopardy! and general trivia, easily gets bored, and is much more entertained by reading a random Wikipedia article than listening to music.

If I didn't already have a smartphone, I'd purchase something like this ...

My point exactly, Slowpoke.

I don't doubt there's a niche market for such a device. But I feel that folks who are seriously into having information on-demand will already have a smart-phone or netbook that can run apps or a web-browser to make this moot anyways. And those folks are mobile, and usually don't want more gadgets cluttering up space.

However, the avg user on Ars owns 2+ game consoles, most likely has a Bach. Degree in IT/IS/Sci, and probably earns good money. Avg user on Ars has money to burn. If they're single, they have even more money to burn. Even with the economy the way it is, they can probably afford and justify getting something like this. Or, they're a tech pack-rat and will get it regardless, much like they did with Roombas.

(Note there's a difference between Devil's Advocacy and Trolling. I'm not attacking folks who feel otherwise, I'm just expressing a viewpoint for debate. No need to take it personal, Folks. Some of you act like I slapped your wife and kicked your dog with my first comment post.)

As many have said: niche market. If this had existed back in 1985, before general internet connectivity (ignoring the fact that wikipedia came about because of that - let's say encyclopedia britannica instead then), this would have sold MILLIONS at $200-300 a pop. Imagine - all the volumes of encyclopedias in one device!.

These days (late 30s, family) I don't have much use for it: I have internet at work, internet at home, and can't really surf the web while driving between the two. Most of the rest of my spare time is spent with the family doing stuff.

BUT, since I can sanitize the articles some, it might be interesting for our almost 3-year old in a few years. I sure would let her use this rather than letting her hit the full wikipedia (or google) all by herself...

And I know - I WILL be there with her. But, I just don't have as much free time as my kids do (neither does my wife), so sometimes we have to find things to entertain them.

We all know about those times in history such as the burning of the library of Alexandria, where the entire stored knowledge of an advanced civilization is lost overnight. I sometimes wonder if a meteor hit the Earth, plunging the planet into centuries of dark ages. What would happen to all the on-line information? It would probably be lost forever. People should buy a bunch of these, store up data, and bury them around the world.